Designing my BOS

Can anyone recommend a good and reliable software (preferably free) for designing my BOS? I feel as if my work is being limited by the Works programme I am using, and the results aren't matching the pictures in my mind. Help!

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If you are using a Mac computer there is a free software called "iBooks Author." I haven't used it yet, but am thinking of trying it out with my own digital version of my BOS. It's pretty awesome. Any design program would potentially work. GIMP is a free program similar to Adobe Photoshop, but I would think something more along the lines of Adobe Illustrator would be better. If I come across anything, I will absolutely let you know. You could try doing a google search for authoring freeware/shareware. If you have Microsoft Office, OneNote is a good program, and I've heard Publisher could be used as well, but I haven't used Office in a few years (not since my windows laptop died on me and I lost my entire Digital BOS which included things I had not put into my hard copy... le sigh.)

Another idea would be web design software, there are lots of free website servers and whatnot, and you could just keep it private for yourself if you wish.

I'm using Windows, but because my laptop came pre-loaded with One-note and Publisher, they obviously used the same product key for too many computers cause it keeps telling me my key is invalid (which is really annoying). I did a Google search earlier, but it found loads of freeware and I have no idea what would be the best to use, so I thought I would ask for advice before I downloaded anything! Thank you for the advice though, I'll definitely have another look and see what I can find.

I tried googling different things and found the best results with " free writing software" or "writer freeware" or any combination like it. If you want to add pictures and stuff, something like GIMP would probably be your best bet as you can make a page with text boxes and pictures placed exactly how you want it.

We're about to finish our fully powered feature laden BOS software app, you can find my posting about it here in the BOS discussions group or write me direct if you need to with any questions - darrel dot christensen at tx dot rr dot com

I use photoshop now, but I started making my pages using a program called Gimp. It's free to download and there are lots of great tutorials online that show you how to do some of the more complex things with the program. Overall, it's fairly easy to use and you can't beat the price...lol.

We're about to finish our fully powered feature laden BOS software app, you can find my posting about it here in the BOS discussions group or write me direct if you need to with any questions - darrel dot christensen at tx dot rr dot com...

... though it isn't free it will do everything you can imagine and more - and if it doesn't, we'll add what you need in a future version.

I adore Scrivener. http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php I have had it for a 5 or more years now. I see the price has increased. No it isn't free, but it is one of a very few programs I have paid for- the others being Microsoft office and Pages( for Mac). I have an Apple, yes, but it is also available for Windows. I use it for my recipes, I save online art class information , it is for writing and there is also a script format and recipe format. I use the blank format even for recipes:) I love how you can save information and have it available so easy. It is like having hundreds of word documents organized in folders, all in one Scrivener file. You can make pdf, change to word etc. very versatile. Free trial available. I know I sound like an advertisement, but I use this almost every day! I copy and paste info from all over the internet and drag images, and just hit control on mac to resize images! I shrink all down to save on space and it tends to be slower when I have too much in one file. I have had to separate my art file because I it was so large (I think 1 GB) and running slow to open and close especially.One file is now 603 MB AFTER I divided it:) LOL, so large files do work to give you an idea. I have more than one recipe file- one for just vegan foods now :) I have one for doodling-aka Zentangles , an art form. One on painting etc I am new to art, art journaling etc. So many uses! :)